You're My Light in These Dark Times
by rawrmuffin466
Summary: "Regina." Ruby whispered reaching out for her, but Regina took a step back, hand still on the door. Ruby retracted her hand, and just looked at Regina. This was no Evil Queen. This was a broken woman, grieving the loss of her mother, someone who had no one left." Takes place after The Millers Daughter. One Shot


It was dark and pouring rain but Ruby didn't care, she just wanted Regina to open the damn door. She heard everything from Mary Margaret and David when they came to pick up Henry. Well, David did most of the talking, Mary Margaret was just crying about how she had done a terrible thing. Ruby couldn't agree more with her. Making Regina kill her own mother? How could Mary Margaret do such a thing, she knows what it's like to have your mother die in your arms. Needless to say Ruby ran out of there as fast as she could.

"Regina c'mon. I know you're in there." Ruby called knocking again and leaning her head against the door. "I can hear you moving around."

The sounds from inside stilled and Ruby closed her eyes sighing. "Regina." She whispered with a single tap to the door. It was a few seconds before Ruby picked up the sound of footsteps walking towards the door and the lock being turned. She stood up straight before the door swung open slowly. Regina stood there in her wrinkled dress slacks and her usual silk blouse. Her hair was askew and there were red rims around her eyes and lingering trails of mascara from the tears that had traveled down her cheeks.

"Miss Lucas." Regina said stiffly, voice cracking ever so slightly.

"Regina." Ruby whispered reaching out for her, but Regina took a step back, hand still on the door. Ruby retracted her hand, and just looked at Regina. This was no Evil Queen. This was a broken woman, grieving the loss of her mother, someone who had no one left. Ruby took a step forward and put her hand on the door so it couldn't be shut on her.

"How are you?" she asked. Not the smoothest way to start up this conversation but it was something.

Regina scowled, "Why are you asking. I doubt you even care."

"You're wrong. I care, very much actually." Ruby stated, locking eyes with Regina. After a few seconds Regina's eyes flicked down to Ruby's hand that was holding a bouquet of flowers. Ruby followed her gaze and held up the flowers she had forgotten she was holding and gave a tiny smile accompanied with a shrug.

"You, you brought flowers?"

"Well, yeah. They um-they've always helped me get through stuff. I'm not sure why, I guess it's the whole there can be beauty in dark times thing I guess. If you don't want em I can, um..." she trailed off. She looked at her feet and scratched the back of her neck.

"Come in." Regina said almost inaudibly. Ruby looked up and the other woman moved slightly to the right. Ruby gratefully walked through the doorway, seeing that it was as much of an invitation that she was going to get. "I have a vase in the kitchen."

Ruby had been in the ex mayors house enough to know where the kitchen was. As she made her way down the hall she glanced into Regina's home office. She had to stop and take a step back to take everything in. Papers were thrown all over, the floor shining with the glass of smashed picture frames, books scattered around the fallen bookshelf, one of the chairs that used to sit in front of the desk was now laying in pieces around the room. Ruby let out a small gasp and involuntarily took a step towards the room. The more she looked the more wrecked the room appeared. She let out a squeak of surprise and Regina appeared and yanked the door closed.

"The kitchen, shall we?" Regina asked, her eyes hard as she pushed past the long legged waitress. Ruby followed behind and laid the bouquet of flowers on the counter as Regina pulled a vase out and filled it with water. She watched as the broken woman gently put the flowers in the vase and examined them.

"They're beautiful."

"Um, yeah, they're uh lilies and the purple is statice. I read somewhere that the lilies, the lilies represent life and that statice symbolizes remembrance and the purple also means admiration and I um...I just read that on the internet. I don't know if it's true but they're pretty so-"

"They're lovely." Regina cuts her off thankfully with a tiny smile. Ruby doesn't know why she keeps getting nervous around Regina but she does know that she loves the woman's smile.

A tiny "You should smile more." slips out of Ruby's mouth effectively removing the small one from Regina's face. "I know, I know it's hard to be anything but sad right now, but you're just so damn beautiful when you smile."

"And how exactly would you know what this is like Miss Lucas."

"I killed my mother." Ruby said it quietly but she knows Regina heard it.

"You-you what?"

Ruby lifted her eyes to meet Regina's. "I killed my mother. It was an accident, but it happened." She took a step closer to the other woman.

"An accident?"

"Yeah, I was protecting my-my friend." No way was she mentioning Snow now. "I threw my mother out of the way and she was impaled. She died telling me that I chose humans over my own kind."

"You would have been enough." whispered Regina, looking at the ground.

"What?"

Regina pulled her eyes up to Ruby's. "You would have been enough. That's what she said to me before she..."

Ruby smiled and placed her hand on top of Regina's which was resting next to the flowers. "She loved you. With all her heart. She died loving you."

Silence. Then Regina crumpled to the floor head in her hands. Ruby immediately sank down next to Regina and pulled the dark haired woman into her. She ran her fingers through short hair and whispered soothing words into her ear and Regina sobbed into her chest. When Regina finally sat up and wiped at her eyes Ruby didn't remove her arms from around her.

"You okay?" she asked softly, rubbing tiny circles on Regina's arm.

Regina nodded and took a shuddering breath. "Ruby, will you do something for me?"

"Of course Regina. Anything."

"Will you stay with me tonight?"

"I would have even if you hadn't asked." She leaned in and pecked the corner of Regina's mouth and pulled her back into her chest. "In the morning I'll help clean your office." Once again, Regina simply nodded, wrapping her arms around Ruby's knees.


End file.
